✉️3. Send and receive messages
With Inbox, you can send and receive messages, create new messages, and use variables to send customized message templates. To do so, you will need to use the message composer, which allows you to create and send message content on any channel.
Start a new conversation
Starting a conversation with a contact on WhatsApp? You'll need to use an approved template.
As an agent using Inbox, you have the ability to initiate conversations with customers, even if they haven't previously contacted your business, as long as they're a contact in your database, or you have their contact details.
This can be useful for a variety of scenarios, such as notifying a customer of an issue with their order or informing them of eligibility for a loyalty program.
When you start a new conversation and select a customer from the list of contacts, we’ll show you what channels are available for that customer. You can then choose an available channel to start a conversation on.
Follow these steps to start a new conversation:
In the panel on the left, click the Create new message button.
In the "To" field, enter the name or contact details of the contact you want to reach out to. Select the name from the list.
Optional: If the customer isn’t in your database, you can click Create contact and create a new contact now.
Optional: Depending on the channel that you choose, such as Email, you can also specify the sender profile, set a subject line, and add Cc and Bcc recipients.
In the "From" field, select the sender you want to send the message from. This field not only displays a list of channels available for starting new conversations, but also shows any channels where there are currently open conversations with contacts. This prevents you from accidentally creating duplicate conversations on the same channel, and allows you to pick up where a conversation left off, instead of starting a new conversation.
In the message composer, type your message.
When you're ready to send your message, click the Send button.
Send a reply message
You can only reply to a message that has been assigned to you.
In the message composer, make sure the drop-down in the top left is set to Reply.
Type your reply into the message composer.
Add any emojis or attachments you want to include.
When you're ready to send your message, click Send.
Replying to a WhatsApp message
Learn more about WhatsApp's Customer Care Window.
When having a conversation with a contact over WhatsApp, you'll have to work within the 24-hour Customer Care Window.
Once 24 hours have elapsed since the last message sent by the customer, you will no longer be able to reply using free-form messages or Reply to open conversation templates.
Instead, we will block the message composer, and you will have to send an Approved template to restart the conversation.
To make it easy for you to know how much time has passed, we display a timer on all WhatsApp conversations in Inbox.
Add an internal comment
In the message composer, make sure the drop-down in the top left is set to Add internal comment.
Type your internal comment into the message composer.
Add any emojis you want to include.
When you're ready, click Add internal comment.
Use a message template
If message templates have been created and published, you can send them as a message in Inbox. To do so, follow these steps:
From the message composer, click the Message templates icon. A panel will appear on the right-hand side.
From here, you can find a message template from the template library by clicking on the drop-down and selecting the template you want to use.
If the message template has been localized into more than one language, you can select one of these language versions from the "Select language" drop-down.
Click the Preview message button to see a preview of the message before you use it.
Click Send message to immediately send the message template to the recipient.
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